


Thunder Calls.

by CountlessUntruths (KaliCephirot)



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Manga Spoilers, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 15:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4354133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaliCephirot/pseuds/CountlessUntruths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vincent asks Leo permission to leave the Baskerville state.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thunder Calls.

When he feels the blanket covering him, he mutters a: "I'm not sleeping."

"Sorry, master, you just seemed chilly," Vincent says, his tone completely unapologetic.

Leo sighs and pushes himself up, trying not to wince at the way his body aches. Since he passed the title Glen to the next Baskerville, little by little his body has started to desert him, no matter what he does. It's a strange feeling, knowing that it all will be over soon.

When he's completely sitting down, he half glares as Vincent offers him the glasses that now-a-days he does need.

"Was there anything you needed? Did Glen call for me?"

"Oh no, nothing of the sort," Vincent smiles. "But you did miss lunch."

"I'm not hungry."

"Well, that's not good, master. You'll hurt Gil's feelings," Vincent pouts at him and when Leo does glare, Vincent just seems to brighten even more. "Perhaps is the view that's depressing you. We could always go for lunch outside."

"Doesn't your master need you?"

"I don't know, does he?"

Infuriating. Leo sighs, reaching for his cane, standing up and definitely not wincing when his knees seem to crack. If he at least looked older, he thinks, he could handle this much more diplomatically, but his body remains that of a sixteen years old boy and he is over one hundred years. "Fine."

Vincent simply beams at him.

*  
The cafeteria that Vincent takes them in is small and cozy, with a fabricated atmosphera and vintage look, trying a little too hard to look how everything looked fifty years ago, which might fool anyone who wasn't there like he and Vincent were.

He scoffs a bit, even as Vincent asks for a private booth. When the sit down, they're practically hidden from the rest of the customers thanks to the screens over most of the surfaces.

Leo sighs, pushing his glasses up with a finger.

"Alright, what is it you've wanted to tell me."

"Tell you, master?" Vincent says, eyes wide, pretending to play innocent. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You didn't just ask me out for lunch, you didn't want me to be at the state," which, Leo admits, he doesn't quite mind. The new Glen is kind and smart and his twin sister, born with red eyes, has been learning, from Vincent, for the past ten years so that she can now also talk to the Abyss. The two of them still go to his rooms frequently for his advice, and while Leo cares about them both, he can't shake the unavoidable feeling that the Baskerville state is not his place to be anymore.

However, he also knows Vincent, as good as he has ever known anyone. Gilbert is easy to read and easy to understand, even the years where he was Elliot's servant helped him understand Gilbert. Now, Vincent? Vincent disliked intimacy of any kind: even Gil had struggled with making his brother open up. But Leo does now, he thinks, understand Vincent, even know him, and he has seen the same reluctance that it shows now over Vincent's eyes for a while.

Vincent holds the ever so innocent smile for a moment more before he sighs, his expression more serious.

"... I wanted to ask your permission to leave, master."

Leo feels as is he had been punched and he leans forward, his chest hurting. "Leave? Where? And how long?"

"I don't know," Vincent gives a small shrug. "Hopefully not too far, and hopefully not for too long. It's been over a hundred years, now. One hundred and ten years and a half, to be precise. Which means that, if they were granted their reincarnation, both Ozwald and Alice have been reborn probably ten years ago or a little less. But they might not recall any of their previous memories and if they're not, my brother is wasting away for nothing."

"But why now?" Leo asks, hating that Vincent's statement makes sense.

"... I don't know how much longer this body of mine has," Vincent says. It hurts, thinking of Vincent dying, which doesn't exactly come as a surprise. What does surprise Leo, tho, it's just how _much_ that thought hurts. "But I don't think it will be too much. A year at most, I think, if there is no reason for me to use my chain, maybe two years, tops. But I know I'm going to die soon, sooner than my brother will."

"And, as always, you are worried about Gil," Leo muses.

Vincent gives him a soft, painfully honest, smile. "Habits die hard, I've found out. If I am to die, I would... I would leave my brother as happy as I can. And I know what his happiness is."

Because Gil was an excellent servant for him, and a true friend. But Leo knows what Vincent is saying, out of all the times, through this century, that he found Gil with a melancholic gaze, as he smoked. And it's nothing too surprising, not really.

He sighs, shaking his head, pushing the hurt deep down his heart. "You don't need my permission, Vincent. You should ask Glen, he's your master now."

"He's not."

" _Vincent._ "

"He's not. I am a Baskerville, so I'll obey Alexander, now Glen, and follow his orders," Vincent turns to look at him, eyes serious and so, so sad. "But all those years ago, I didn't vow obedience to Glen Baskerville. Leo, _you_ are my only master and you will be up until the day I die."

He is kind, to say until he dies and not until Leo dies, which is, he's sure, weeks, maybe a month, away. And it's thinking about his own inevitable death that he realizes what Vincent isn't asking, the order he had given, a century ago.

"You can go," he says, and then he takes a deep breath. "Vincent, you have my permission to die."

Vincent seems startled, and then his eyes go liquid in a way that Leo has seen but a couple of times.

"Thank you, master," he can't stand the sound of Vincent's roughened voice, so, ignoring that they're in public, Leo kisses him.

They never kissed enough, Leo realizes, and they should have. He should have. For Vincent's constant company, for the unexpected kindness that Vincent showed rarely, for the unnamed tenderness Leo had felt each and every time on the nights when Vincent slept by his side, his expression soft and innocent the way it never was when he was awake.

And now it's almost too late. He kisses Vincent now, a hand tight over his too-short hair, perhaps too hard, perhaps too desperate, but Vincent doesn't complaint. Vincent sighs against his mouth and opens his mouth for his kiss and kisses back, and Leo tries not to think over the trembling of Vincent's hands against his face.

He keeps his tight hold over Vincent's hair when they break up the kiss, breathing hard.

"Master, that was so bold of you," Vincent says, his voice normal-sounding once again.

"Shut up."

"If you want to, we could skip the afternoon break and we could go back to the state..."

Leo finds himself laughing a bit, which he didn't expect. His body, they both know, wouldn't be able to handle it, not as it is right now.

"No, thank you. Maybe when you come back," which is a lie, they both know, but one that needs to be said, Leo feels.

"Then I have a good reason to make sure my search is done fast." Vincent says softly, with a smile that is polite if closed when he looks at him again. "I think it would be best if we both said our goodbyes here, master. I still have to tell Gil, after all, and it's likely he'll grow upset."

"I'll stay in my room, then," Leo says, standing up, leaning against his cane.

"I thought that perhaps you'd like to stay here for your afternoon tea," Vincent says. Something in his tone tells Leo that Vincent is hiding something, but what, he doesn't know and Vincent offers anything. "I've found that their lemon gateaux is almost as good as Gil's, and I'm fairly certain you'll love their peppermint tea."

Leo almost thinks about saying no, since it's ever so clear that Vincent is plotting something.

But this will be the last time, Leo thinks, that the two of them will have this mischief from his servant and, he thinks, perhaps it's what Vincent is planning. Something to get him angry, if even for a little time, before the sadness of this goodbye overcomes him.

"Fine, I'll follow your advice," Leo moves to sit down, putting the napkin back over his lap. "Order for me before you leave."

"Of course. I'll leave the car on standby as well, master," Vincent stands up and Leo doesn't look up, but, from the corner of his eye, he sees the way Vincent bows. "It has been an pleasure serving you."

Leo doesn't say anything, his throat too tight. He waits until Vincent's steps have faded to pinch the bridge of his nose, trying to breathe again and not to break down, not prepared for this goodbye, even if he has been preparing for the day his body would simply disappear. But, he thinks, it was that he was the one supposed to be leaving.

By the time the waiter comes, Leo has more or less managed to control his breathing, and he's pretty certain he's not crying.

"Peppermint tea and gateaux," the waiter says and Leo fears that he might have actually gone crazy in a second, because it's been over one hundred years since he last heard that voice, and there have been many other voices he has forgotten in all this time, but this one?

This one he would never forget.

He looks up, hope burning in his chest, and no-one ever tells you how happiness can also break your heart.

The waiter is also staring at him, eyes wide. "... do I know you from somewhere?" he asks. He still has summer-sky blue eyes, his ears pierced. His nametag even spells 'Elliot'.

Vincent, you son of a bitch, Leo thinks, and there is nothing he could do to stop the tears now, and he doesn't even try.

"You did, once," he finds himself laughing even as tears roll down his face and this new - alive - Elliot looks at him with concern. "And it is so nice to see you again."


End file.
